The Candidate Experience

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about what it is to be a job candidate, and the experience from that end. Part of that is because I will likely be a job candidate myself sometime within the next couple of months, and partly I think it is because there is more buzz about the job seeker's experience out there in the HR sphere because the economy is getting better. I know here in BC the last report I saw showed 6.2% unemployment, which is pretty darn low, especially in comparison to many of the states. We are heading back towards pre-2008 levels, and people are starting to think about it again.

Anyway, it made me think about the process where I am. Certainly, when I applied, it was pretty straightforward; I wanted a position as a sales associate at one of the locations, so I came in on my lunch break one day, all dressed up, and dropped off a resume. Then I got a call about an interview, set it up, and went to it. This was in 2007, in Calgary, and things were booming; I was able to hold out for an extra dollar an hour, and get it no problem. At an entry-level sales position, that's pretty much unheard of right now.

All in all, I would classify my candidate experience as entirely unremarkable. I think entry-level retail type jobs remain one of the few where it is still more common for people to hand in resumes personally than to recieve electronic ones; it was a big deal when my boss put her first job listing ad onto Craigslist. Now that's passe. I think we were a little behind the curve on that, anyway, but whatever.

Recently I developed a recruitment and selection manual for the company. The idea was to provide a guide for the frontline managers who do much of the hiring, and to try and give them some training on what to look for and how to go about it. In the recruitment section, one of the things I did was develop a template for a job advertisement, and I remember it struck me as quite funny when I got some feedback from my mentor about it, because he suggested I revise it as he didn't think print ads were really the way to go anymore. It made me laugh because I had honestly never even considered the fact that someone might look at it as a print advertisement; I hadn't even considered it! Then I went back and added a paragraph or two to specifically reference web adverstising as the way to go. To me, it seemed obvious. Evidently, it wasn't.

Anyway, the candidate experience. Back to that.

I have discussed using pre-hire assessments in previous posts, and I really do think that they are the way to go. Evidence suggests that, when used properly, these assessments truly can improve quality of hire and cultural fit to a significant degree. At the same time, on the candidate end, if someone were to present me with a 150 question assessment, I'm a lot more likely to reconsider applying. Don't make me sit at the computer for an hour just to apply! So I think the real trick is to hit that balance between ensuring a good quality fit before interviewing, and making it easy to apply.

This article discusses the importance of the candidate experience, and describes the ideal experience as "point, click, upload and go". Well, that may be ideal, but it doesn't mesh well with pre-hire assessments. Part of the appeal to management of the assessments are that the screening occurs prior to a person ever seeing the resume. Time spent screening resumes increases salary costs, and can be a real time sink, after all. Ultimately, I think it is important to find that balance, and to try to keep things reasonable on each end; I personally never minded doing an asessment as a candidate, provided that it took no longer than about fifteen minutes, because one of the things that an assessment gives you is an idea of the job and the culture, and those are always nice to have.